MARTHA AND THE, MIGHTY I AM M ARTHA was preparing painstak- ingly for The Ascent. Ap- parently, up to the time she came to my sister Elizabeth's house to help with the housework, she had been juSt about holding her own in the great curren t of evil that flowed against her, but after that she began to make head- way. In her great struggle to identify herself with The Mighty I Am, she was trying to save not only herself but others, too. This was why'she began to radiate ultraviolet sunbeams on three- year-old Dotty, my sister's child. My sister and her husband, Harold, had lived in Los ..A.ngeles for quite some time, so the phenomenon of Martha did not greatly startle them. Most of the shorter and more exciting roads to the Almighty seem to start from Los An- geles, and those who have not seen an inviting road sign are nevertheless quite tolerant of those who have I t was Martha's earnest hope to be able to identify herself with The Mighty I Am, because, to her, that represented salvation. To do it, she had to repress all emotion, all passion, all feeling. At times that was a great help to Elizabeth, for things sometimes go wrong with my sister's housekeeping. Under the in- fluence of The Mighty I Am, nothing ever ruffled Martha. One time she had just hung the washing out on four new lines, which Harold had rigged up sketchily in the back yard. The lines broke and dropped alI the clean things into a mixture of soot, dust, weeds, and broken toys. Without so much as a change of her pulse beat, Martha went into the back yard, gath- ered up the clothes, a.t:l d ran them through the washing machine again -suds, rinsings, and all. Twice a week, Martha went down to the meet- ing hall of The Mighty I Am Society to sit in the presence of those who had already made The Ascent and were practically as one with The I Am. Mr. Ballard was the most Asèended, and next to him was Mrs. Ballard. They believed in the reincarnation of souls, and Mr. Ballard had had a lucky break: he was the reincarnation of George Washington. He had an even luckier break in being married to Mrs. Ballard. She was the reincarnation of Joan of Arc, which naturally brought considerable prestige both to her and to The I Am Society. It could not, for In- stance, be overlooked that the Catholic Church had recognized the importance of Mrs. Ballard, for had not the Church canonized her in the body of Joan of Arc There were others besides Mr. and Mrs. Ballard who had made The Ascent and who had rIsen far above all such evils as passion and emotion and such mundane feelings as greed. There was, for instance, The MIghty I Am artist who had a house not far from where Harold and Elizabeth lived. One eve- ning while my sister's family was out for a drive, Martha, who was sitting with Dotty in the back seat, pointed out the house and relnarked in a casual, conversational tone, "That is the home of The Mighty I Am artist. He has just finished a portrait of God." Harold managed to hold the car on a fairly even course while he asked how the artist knew what God looked like. "Oh," Martha explained, "God came down and posed for him for five days." The Ballards and the Ascended and U nascended attached much importance to the influence of the sun, particular- ly its ultraviolet rays. Their meeting house was illuminated with lights which cast an eerie lavender glow over the as- sembly.. To people outside, who could see the memhers of the society through the windows, the congregation looked like a gathering of the dead who had already ascended. My sister, who is likely to express quite a lot of emotion from time to time, found Martha . .. an awe-InspIrIng person- age because she never displayed affection, re- sentment, disappoint- ment, or much interest in anything at all, except the pursuit of The I Am. Even when Martha came home one night and told how the Society had destroyed a German submarine hiding in the Pan- ama Canal, she did not seem excited or much impressed with the feat. She ex- plained that the Society was trying to prevent the war from spreading, so nat- urally, when the Ascended ones (who had worldwide vision) spotted a Ger- man submarine lying under water in the Panama Canal, ready to do no one knows how much mischief, they decided to destroy it. America was not yet in the war, and the SocIety wanted to keep 85 > . -: r' r ....:.:. ....0 .... '-:'_':":_:: "'.::::::::'::': ::::::':::.: ::' : .'::?'.:-:::....-;.;":.:.:::"f .-s.: t . , LIQUEURS ' .) ; ." i ""- : ;. trr f f No" ,'':':'-: '". 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